Smugglers

[Scottmi]

Vancouver BC is a hotspot for global smuggling of meth and other illicit substances. pic below of meth smuggling to Australia. Will tobacco be the next hot item for Australia, NZ, Canada and Hawaii?

Here's part one of a multi-part story if you are so interested.

 

[mikethompson]

LOL smuggling tobacco out of Canada?

 

[VDL_Piper]

Already is and they don't hide it behind car headlights they bring in shipping containers full of tobacco. I'm led to believe that around $10 million dollars of tobacco is seized every week!

https://www.abf.gov.au/newsroom-subsite/Pages/Border-Force-nabs-$48-million-in-black-market-cigarettes-and-tobacco.aspx

 

[Servant King]

Translation: Everyone in Vancouver can expect a lot more...cavity searches.



@briarblues perhaps this will make a potential move to Italy all the more urgent, yes?

 

[didimauw]

Already is and they don't hide it behind car headlights they bring in shipping containers full of tobacco. I'm led to believe that around $10 million dollars of tobacco is seized every week!

https://www.abf.gov.au/newsroom-subsite/Pages/Border-Force-nabs-$48-million-in-black-market-cigarettes-and-tobacco.aspx

28 million cigarettes?!?!? MAN! Almost a weeks worth in there!

 

[trouttimes]

If there is that kind of demand, it must be bad for you.

 

[anotherbob]

If there is that kind of demand, it must be bad for you.

actually the demand was always high even when taxes where more reasonable. It's something about the culture. Sure it's gotten worse but, while every country has cigarette smugglers and tax dodges with tobacco, Australia had a very high level. Not agreeing with the taxation level in part I think it's just not right to punish people that follow the rules to make up for people who don't or also smart to encourage the behavior you consider a problem (we got a problem with people smuggling a product to avoid taxes, I know we'll get them to smuggle more). But my point there is a reason (agree or disagree with it all we want) sometimes for the things that are insane.

 

[Ahi Ka]

Tobacco has always been an imported, and thus taxed commodity here. Even when NZ had its own tobacco belt there were laws limiting the amount of domestic tobacco which could be sold/blended, I think it was something like 4%, which is stupid as it grows incredibly well. So tobacco smuggling has always occurred, and in some cases is celebrated.

There is a great article about it at our museum. Local farmers used to do a baccy run to the mines on the west coast. To avoid confiscation they had to either make new roads, or hide it on their trucks for the checkpoint. My favourite story is when they knew a guy was carrying tobacco but they couldn’t find it as he used his second fuel tank as the hiding spot. Another filled his trucks tyres with ropes.

 

[cshubhra]

My favorite smuggling story I read summarized in a few lines:

A customs officer had a feeling that a person who was crossing the border in a red car every week was smuggling something. However hard he tried though, he could not catch him red handed with the contraband.

Many years later they met again. The retired customs officer asked the man what was he smuggling. He replied: “Red Cars”

 

[woodsroad]

So, what happened here?
The government passed a law, handing over a nice sized chunk of their economy to organized crime?
Nice!

 

[ADKPiper]

Modern day Pirates.

 

[HeavyLeadBelly]

I’ve always been fascinated by this story: Contraband capital; The Akwesasne Mohawk reserve is a smuggling conduit, police say - https://nationalpost.com/health/contraband-capital-the-akwesasne-mohawk-reserve-is-a-smuggling-conduit-police-say

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Tobacco smuggling has been going on for a while in the US. Stolen 18 wheelers full of cigarettes, robberies at reservations, Even raw tobacco leaf has been reported stolen many times. When you have one of the most expensive crops, there is always going to be game on it.
Even tomatoes get smuggled. Anything that someone can make a buck on, gets smuggled. Hell, bootlegging is still a crime that goes on. Dropping prohibition merely lowered incidents of organized crime. It never fully went away.

 

[PA Piper Mike]

Tobacco smuggling has been going on for a while in the US. Stolen 18 wheelers full of cigarettes, robberies at reservations, Even raw tobacco leaf has been reported stolen many times. When you have one of the most expensive crops, there is always going to be game on it.
Even tomatoes get smuggled. Anything that someone can make a buck on, gets smuggled. Hell, bootlegging is still a crime that goes on. Dropping prohibition merely lowered incidents of organized crime. It never fully went away.

Corn Pop's distant cousin, Popcorn...he too was a bad dude....but in a good way.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

View attachment 284630


Corn Pop's distant cousin, Popcorn...he too was a bad dude....but in a good way.

View attachment 284631

Bootlegging and moonshining are in the same category, but bootlegging can also be driving across a county or state line buying legal booze, and returning with intent to sell without a license. When I was a teen, a family used to do this in North Alabama, where whole counties were still dry. They had a circle driveway and a fridge in the front yard. You could drive thru and buy whatever you wanted in a dry county. But, this was just one of many people that did this.

In wet counties we still have this sort of bootlegger, but they do it because of lack of businesses to buy liquor in impoverished areas. Or selling to minors. Or just to make money. Sometimes the booze was stolen.

When we read “bootlegging” in the newspaper, we mostly think of long bearded moonshiners, but mostly they are probably just selling stolen liquor to minors.